Reports of generally available information, including criminal, financial, educational, professional, and employment related background checks, are a staple tool used by prospective employers, private and public investigators and detective organizations, prospective spouses, and prospective creditors. Many services are currently known and available to generate reports of such information, and the need for additional types of screening information has been increasing over time, due at least in part to the explosive growth of negligent hiring and retention claims against companies which expose companies to large damage awards if they are found liable for breaching its duty of care in selecting and retaining only competent and safe employees. The threat of terrorism has also increased the need to obtain reports of information about particular people, places, and things in a timely manner. For all these reasons, people and organizations have an increasingly powerful incentive to learn and gather as much information as possible about the character, reputation, and characteristics of the people, places, and things they are going to associate with.
The Internet and World Wide Web have spawned a variety of services allowing individuals and organizations to search for specific information about other parties, for example a family could perform a criminal background check on a prospective nanny, find out the owner of vehicle based on the license plate or vehicle identification number, or screen prospective business partners, political leaders, and teachers. Today, human resource managers are often overwhelmed with an abundance of critical applicant data on prospective employees. In fact, many employers complain that ordering and tracking such information, such as criminal background checks, employment and education verification, and drug screening are among the biggest hurdles to expediting the hiring process. To address this need, there have arisen over time a variety of systems and services designed to provide reports of background screening information. While such prior art systems and services may provide useful results, there remains a strong need for even faster, broader, more accurate, and more cost-effective searching and reporting of generally available information, with less effort and time.